Looks pretty cool no?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/01/western-digital-quietly-intros-wd-tv-hd-media-player/

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&type=product&id=1218008588808

Wonder what file formats it supports. This might be the perfect way to stream my 4gb+ files that wont stream via my Xbox 360. I have a spare HD/enclosure laying around that I could just stick in this thing.

So can this record something that is playing on my HDTV? Can I rip a blueray movie with this?????

So can this record something that is playing on my HDTV? Can I rip a blueray movie with this?????

Details seem pretty scarce on this so far, but you won't use it to rip; there's no drive. And I don't imagine it'll record anything either. It'll just play what you have otherwise ripped to a (they're hoping WD) USB HDD. Doesn't mean it might not be an interesting little box.

Anybody who gets codec info, please post.

CD

http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-media-player-usb-2-0-hdmi-composite-a-v/q/loc/101/209975073.html
Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

...This might be the perfect way to stream my 4gb+ files that wont stream via my Xbox 360. I have a spare HD/enclosure laying around that I could just stick in this thing.

Have you tried plugging that same USB HD/enclosure into your Xbox 360 to see if the 4gb+ files play OK? Might save you some money... though this new WD offering does support FLAC and a plethora of other codecs that the 360 doesn't.

http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-media-player-usb-2-0-hdmi-composite-a-v/q/loc/101/209975073.html
Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

No .ISO; man, when will there be a box that can handle everything you can throw at it.

CD

Have you tried plugging that same USB HD/enclosure into your Xbox 360 to see if the 4gb+ files play OK? Might save you some money... though this new WD offering does support FLAC and a plethora of other codecs that the 360 doesn't.

I have. I've used a HFS+ formatted drive and everything as people here suggested I do. Still wont play my 4gb+ MP4 files =(

http://www.buy.com/prod/wd-tv-hd-media-player-usb-2-0-hdmi-composite-a-v/q/loc/101/209975073.html
Media Formats
MPEG 1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4,Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H264), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG
MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

Looks like it supports the majority of formats out there (MKV support! yay!). It's weird that there isn't a product page for it on WesternDigital.com

I wish it did have a LAN connection so that we could stream media from our PC's but if it can handle a USB Hard Drive or Flash drive formatted with NTFS so that you can play files bigger than 4GB's that would be great! I'll be waiting to see some reviews on this device for sure.

I'd also be curious if it supports Transport Stream files too. Although those can easily be made in MPEG2 files using VideoRedo.

The Popcorn Hour & iStar MiniHD are similar devices but the interfaces are just way too buggy and just feel like a constant beta. When you download a new firmware/update it might fix one thing and then break something else.

No .ISO; man, when will there be a box that can handle everything you can throw at it.

CD

If only an Xbox running XBMC could be upgraded to handle HD quality files it would be so great! :)

Ordered from BB.

I prefer a local drive over streaming anyway. The feature set of this box seems good - except it doesn't appear to handle DVD menus. There is a slight glimpse of the GUI on the buy.com page. Looks interesting, but I'm ready to be disappointed - as I have been with every media player.

Ordered from BB.

I prefer a local drive over streaming anyway. The feature set of this box seems good - except it doesn't appear to handle DVD menus. There is a slight glimpse of the GUI on the buy.com page. Looks interesting, but I'm ready to be disappointed - as I have been with every media player.

Same here, I've been disappointed with every media player except for the Xbox running XBMC. I'll be looking forward to how it works out for you blimey! :)

Its on sale at BB this week for anyone interested

I'll be curious to see how the GUI and overall firmware is on this thing. Might consider picking one up, though I am more of a fan of media servers and streaming my content to a front end (ala XBMC). Having to put my content on an external USB drive from my server, then carry it into my family room, plug it in.. just seems like a hassle.

Is this method popular amongst the AVS members? I've used a main computer for a media server and used Slim Devices products for my audio (Classic, Duet, and now a Boom) and my 360 for video for several years. I've got 1.5 TB's of audio and video content so far!

If only an Xbox running XBMC could be upgraded to handle HD quality files it would be so great! :)

Well sure, there are a lot of "if only..." in the realm of digital streaming, but my point was you'd think someone getting into it this late in the game would have all their bases covered. XBMC is how old?...and freeware to boot, but in many ways, still has all these newcomers beat.

CD

Bitstreaming?

Just picked one up from BB and the WD player is a delight! I can play all my archived videos that I used on my Zune, Ipod (5th Gen), and Archos 604 WIFI. It also plays pure VOB w/o any problems. Well worth the cost considering other media player that I own which have their limitations.

Just picked one up from BB and the WD player is a delight!
Glad to hear it!
Does the manual indicate whether or not USB drives formatted as NTFS are supported? Or it is limited to FAT32?

ISO ? TS ? TP ? Trickplay? Menu Nav ?
Someone give us the facts

Just picked one up from BB and the WD player is a delight! I can play all my archived videos that I used on my Zune, Ipod (5th Gen), and Archos 604 WIFI. It also plays pure VOB w/o any problems. Well worth the cost considering other media player that I own which have their limitations.

I also just picked one of these up from Best Buy today -- for a hundred bucks, I'd call this thing a real bargain.

I tested it out by copying a 720p file in MKV format, a 720p file encoded in XVID, a 1080p file in WMV9, and a standard definition MPEG-2 file. All played successfully and without bugs -- except the WMV9 file, which changes aspect ratio when I forward or reverse scan in the video.

Picture quality is good on my 720p television, and the menus and interfaces are simple to use -- but not fancy.

The player lets you search for a specific file by name, or browse your files by type (music, pictures, video). Within a type, it is possible to have it show all the available files or just the most recent. Forward and reverse scan within a video file is possible at 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x speed. It's not particularly fancy, but it does mostly seem to work well and it is certainly functional.

For the price, I am certainly satisfied.

Does this thing work with the AVCHD from the Hauppauge HD recorder?

Does this thing work with the AVCHD from the Hauppauge HD recorder?


Great question! I second that - if it does AVCHD then I would buy this today. My entire family video collection is filmed in AVCHD. This would save me having to transcode to WMV HD to play on my 360.

But from the box it did said supporting "MPEG-4/AVC"...
I do hope it can support other file systems other than FAT32. That will solve whole bunch of problem for me.

Tom,

Have you tested it with other file systems? eg. HFS+, NTFS?
Can't wait to test it tonight!

Salado

I also just picked one of these up from Best Buy today -- for a hundred bucks, I'd call this thing a real bargain.

I tested it out by copying a 720p file in MKV format, a 720p file encoded in XVID, a 1080p file in WMV9, and a standard definition MPEG-2 file. All played successfully and without bugs -- except the WMV9 file, which changes aspect ratio when I forward or reverse scan in the video.

Picture quality is good on my 720p television, and the menus and interfaces are simple to use -- but not fancy.

The player lets you search for a specific file by name, or browse your files by type (music, pictures, video). Within a type, it is possible to have it show all the available files or just the most recent. Forward and reverse scan within a video file is possible at 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x speed. It's not particularly fancy, but it does mostly seem to work well and it is certainly functional.

For the price, I am certainly satisfied.

Any pixs of the screen menus? If it displays cover art and a decent front end seems like the way to go.

I'm assuming that when you say HFS+ you mean Mac OS Extended (I believe they're interchangeable?). I bought one of these today and my HFS+ formatted Western Digital drive works well with it. I only say "well" because there's some odd message at the top of the menus that says "drive does not resolve" or something like that, but everything works just fine.

Not sure about NTFS as I'm running OS X and can't write to NTFS.

I found that 720p mkv content played flawlessly. 1080p had some issues though (blocky patched all over the screen where things had moved in a scene. I only have a 720p TV so I'm not sure if I can blame it on that, a bad HDMI cable, a high bit rate encoding or, the machine itself.

This is very much what I've been wanting for quite a while now. I prefer having a local drive as I end up having too many issues over a network. Especially when trying to stream HD content, which proved impossible with my xbox 360.

My only issue with it as of now (other than the 1080p issues) is that it seems to not recognize subtitles that are written into the mkv file. The only time I could get subs to work was when I had a separate sub file contained in a folder with the mkv file.

I'll have more time to mess around with things tomorrow. I want to test some other 1080p files. I'm unsure of compatibility with the other file types people were mentioning. If anyone wants to point me to some links with files of those types I'd be more then happy to mess around with them tomorrow.

Here is some pictures (not mine)

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshkawaii/WDTVPics#

more pics (Flickr Search)

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=wd+hd+tv

Here is a video from youtube (once again not mine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CONfyjNPMQ0

The comments on Engadget are getting alot of hits at the moment. If you are interested in this product (I already bought mine today) you should check it out:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/01/western-digital-quietly-intros-wd-tv-hd-media-player/3#comments

Any pixs of the screen menus? If it displays cover art and a decent front end seems like the way to go.
It does display cover art. Or at least it did for some of the movies I had which I had apparently added art to. Not sure about music, but I don't se why it wouldn't.

As for the interface, it's not going to blow anyone out of the water, but it doesn't look bad and it certainly gets the job done. If you find the engadget story on this piece of hardware someone posted a link to pics in the comments.

The lack of a network jack is a little disappointing, but I'm glad to see a name brand bring a player like this to the J6P market!

The lack of a network jack is a little disappointing, but I'm glad to see a name brand bring a player like this to the J6P market!

I would love a network jack as well, but what do you expect for $99? I would be happy to fork over a little more dough for a networked version.

Once this thing gets "officially" released (this thing isn't mentioned at all on the wd website), I hope some body hacks this little box to make it more "functional". (what do you think this thing is running, linux?)

gonna start putting it through some tests tomorrow (gotta get another HDMI cable).

speedbal

So far I tested with both formats.

1. MAC OS Extended
2. MAC OS Extended with Journal (HFS+)

Also, this little beauty supports UTF-8 with multiple language support for file names. Haven't tried the SRT yet.

So far so cool.

It will warn that the Journaled volume is not writeable. But I formatted the USB flash drive with MAC OS Extended and it works wonderfully.

.02c

I'm assuming that when you say HFS+ you mean Mac OS Extended (I believe they're interchangeable?). I bought one of these today and my HFS+ formatted Western Digital drive works well with it. I only say "well" because there's some odd message at the top of the menus that says "drive does not resolve" or something like that, but everything works just fine.

Not sure about NTFS as I'm running OS X and can't write to NTFS.

I found that 720p mkv content played flawlessly. 1080p had some issues though (blocky patched all over the screen where things had moved in a scene. I only have a 720p TV so I'm not sure if I can blame it on that, a bad HDMI cable, a high bit rate encoding or, the machine itself.

This is very much what I've been wanting for quite a while now. I prefer having a local drive as I end up having too many issues over a network. Especially when trying to stream HD content, which proved impossible with my xbox 360.

My only issue with it as of now (other than the 1080p issues) is that it seems to not recognize subtitles that are written into the mkv file. The only time I could get subs to work was when I had a separate sub file contained in a folder with the mkv file.

I'll have more time to mess around with things tomorrow. I want to test some other 1080p files. I'm unsure of compatibility with the other file types people were mentioning. If anyone wants to point me to some links with files of those types I'd be more then happy to mess around with them tomorrow.

It just pans out all the media files in all directories in to a single level of file listings. I don't like that. I prefer to organized the files in different directories.
And I could browse through different directories.

That's a little bit let down.

:(

Tried bunch of them. Works flawlessly.

Great question! I second that - if it does AVCHD then I would buy this today. My entire family video collection is filmed in AVCHD. This would save me having to transcode to WMV HD to play on my 360.

Took one today from BB for $99. Plays mts, m2ts HDs from my Sony HDRSR11 (that what I needed most). Is capable to work with two USB HDDs at the same time. Let say view slides from one and play music from the other. One more nice feature - power switch is on the remote. Since I store all my media on the USB HDDs, I don’t care about network.

Heres a quick video review!
http://www.vimeo.com/2137683
(not me)

Tried bunch of them. Works flawlessly.

Holy smokes man - that's awesome!!!! Did you try files with the extension ".m2ts" by chance?

Cheers! :)

** UPDATE ** Nevermind - see my post below...

...Plays...m2ts HDs from my Sony...

OMFG that's awesome - that seals the deal for me then! I am going to buy one of these today!

Cheers! :D

Yeah... everything except the real audio/video stuff. And m2ts from my Sony Handycam as well...

This deal is a steal. PERIOD.

Plus, full multiple language support. By turning off the "media library" option you can browse the folders.

The little thing didn't turn to be hot at all. That's nice. Only thing is that is kinda not that fancy with the menu system (it's good looking though). I am just comparing to my PS3. But it's way much easier to use all kinds of downloadable media from the internet...

Love it. Grab one when the deal is still there.


OMFG that's awesome - that seals the deal for me then! I am going to buy one of these today!

Cheers! :D

Ok this looks like the ticket for ripping and storing my dvd collection...IF....when i rip to disc can they trans coded to an upconverted file type...i know this has nothing to do with the unit but more to do with my lack of knowledge in this area. I use a Toshiba upsacling dvd player for my standard collection and it looks great. Is what i'm looking for possible?

Heres a quick video review!
http://www.vimeo.com/2137683
(not me)

That's my friend's review of the unit I bought at Best Buy today. I've played with it for a while today, and I'm very impressed.

I'm a Mac user, and I've always been annoyed that most media players require a USB hard drive formatted as FAT32. I can confirm that HFS+ works great. However, I noticed that for full functionality, you need to partition it using the old Apple Partition Map, not the new GUID method used to boot Intel Macs. Also, journaling can't be enabled. You can disable it without reformatting by using the Terminal command "diskutil disableJournal /Volumes/VolumeName". Unfortunately, you do have to reformat to convert the partition type from GUID to APM. If you use a GUID partition or a volume with journaling, then certain features won't work, such as tracking your recently viewed items, but basic playback seems to work fine.

Support for NTFS and HFS+ is important for 1080p and 720p movies that are larger than 4GB, which is the file size limit for FAT32. We played some 7GB videos without any problems. Overall, it's pretty incredible that such a small device can output 1080p video so smoothly when some computers that are 1-2 years old still can't do that.

That's my friend's review of the unit I bought at Best Buy today. I've played with it for a while today, and I'm very impressed.

I'm a Mac user, and I've always been annoyed that most media players require a USB hard drive formatted as FAT32. I can confirm that HFS+ works great. However, I noticed that for full functionality, you need to partition it using the old Apple Partition Method, not the new GUID method used to boot Intel Macs. Also, journaling can't be enabled. You can disable it without reformatting by using the Terminal command "diskutil disableJournal /Volumes/VolumeName". Unfortunately, you do have to reformat to convert the partition type from GUID to APM. If you use a GUID partition or a volume with journaling, then certain features won't work, such as tracking your recently viewed items, but basic playback seems to work fine.

Support for NTFS and HFS+ is important for 1080p and 720p movies that are larger than 4GB, which is the file size limit for FAT32. We played some 7GB videos without any problems. Overall, it's pretty incredible that such a small device can output 1080p video so smoothly when some computers that are 1-2 years old still can't do that.

Excellent! Thanks to you and your friend for this info. Its so tempting, I think Im going to get one!

I've read via comments on Engadget that this can't output DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 via SPDIF. Is this true? If so, that's a major dealbreaker. Either way, I'm going to pick one up tomorrow morning just to try it out, and I'll be sure to post the results, but I'm just curious right now :)

I've read via comments on Engadget that this can't output DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 via SPDIF. Is this true? If so, that's a major dealbreaker. Either way, I'm going to pick one up tomorrow morning just to try it out, and I'll be sure to post the results, but I'm just curious right now :)

I think the confusion is that the unit may not be able to decode DD/dts and send the decoded 5.1 audio out via the RCA audio outputs (only sends 2 channel), but it can pass the encoded audio out via HDMI/optical for your receiver to decode. I'm not sure if I've tried a movie with dts yet, but DD worked fine.

anyone already knows what is the chipset WD used?

Does it run Linux? Did they enclose GNU/GPL license if it runs Linux?

This is a review I saw from bestbuy website:

"WD hit the bullseye with this product. I have several failed DMA's sitting in my closet and this thing worked flawlessly with every movie format that I've thrown at it: MKV, H.264, DiVX, XViD, MPEG2/4, MOV, .ISO, .VOB. I even hooked up my Flip Video Camera and IPod and it worked! It doesn't get any easier than this.

The one thing I would like to see in the next version is a hard drive built in so I can keep a master media library stored locally."

Does anyone know if you can copy from a USB Flash plugged into the side to a USB HD plugged into the back? This would make transferring files much easier for me. I'd like to have a 3.5" USB HD hidden away behind some other equipment, and only the box out front. I'd like to use an 8gb or 16gb USB Flash for transferring files from my office PC (ground floor) up to my theater (third floor). Not having to unhook the hard drive (and its associated external power supply) would make the file transfer much easier.

Another question/idea that might make transfer to/from a drive connected to this device... does anyone know of a NAS enclosure or pre-built NAS drive that also includes USB Slave? It would be great to be able to transfer files to the drive over the network and have the WD HD TV box access files from the same drive over USB. I haven't found a NAS yet that also has USB Slave functionality, but it doesn't seem like that exotic of an idea... anyone know of one?

Another question/idea that might make transfer to/from a drive connected to this device... does anyone know of a NAS enclosure or pre-built NAS drive that also includes USB Slave? It would be great to be able to transfer files to the drive over the network and have the WD HD TV box access files from the same drive over USB. I haven't found a NAS yet that also has USB Slave functionality, but it doesn't seem like that exotic of an idea... anyone know of one?

The only hard drives that I can think of that sort of do what you describe are the external NDAS drives based on the Ximeta chipset. They have ethernet and USB ports but are not a true NAS. You have to install Windows or Mac drivers that will allow you to connect to the drive over the network, and the drive will show up like a local drive. Unfortunately, you can't connect the USB and ethernet cables to the back of the drive simultaneously, so you'll still have to remove the USB cable and plug in the ethernet when you want to copy media over.

The only hard drives that I can think of that sort of do what you describe are the external NDAS drives based on the Ximeta chipset. They have ethernet and USB ports but are not a true NAS. You have to install Windows or Mac drivers that will allow you to connect to the drive over the network, and the drive will show up like a local drive. Unfortunately, you can't connect the USB and ethernet cables to the back of the drive simultaneously, so you'll still have to remove the USB cable and plug in the ethernet when you want to copy media over.

Requiring Windows drivers isn't a problem. I've found several NAS enclosures with both network and USB connections (in the $40 - $50 range)... the trouble is figuring out which connection (network or USB) takes precedent. If it's USB before Network, then hopefully the WD box would access via USB when it's powered on, and then release it to the network when it's powered off. If it's network then USB, it seems I'd have to manually disconnect it from the network when I'm not transferring. Also, if powering off the WD box isn't enough to release the USB, i'd have to manually disconnect USB as well.

I'm strongly considering giving this a try. Even with the cost of a NAS enclosure, it's still over $100 less than a Popcorn Hour. Any other comments/suggestions on if/how this would work are welcome. If the NAS idea won't work, transferring files with an 8gb or 16gb USB stick would work well enough (again, if you can copy from one device to the other with both plugged into the WD HD TV box, can someone confirm?).

Now listed at the WD store:
http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/categoryID.13830600

Press release:
http://www.wdc.com/en/company/releases/PressRelease.asp?release={DE317446-DBDF-4BD1-8255-EDDEFC970B9C}

Product page: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

If the NAS idea won't work, transferring files with an 8gb or 16gb USB stick would work well enough (again, if you can copy from one device to the other with both plugged into the WD HD TV box, can someone confirm?).

I don't see an option to do that. The media player will aggregate the media on both drives so you can access everything without switching between the two drives, but there doesn't seem to be an option to copy or move content from one to the other.

another question have is if you can hook up a external blu ray drive and play movies that away? so blu-ray -> sata to usb2.0 connector -> to this. if it did that i might be in 1080p heaven. :)

These are great observations and questions. From reading here and at Engadget, a lot of folks are bummed by no networking on this unit. But so many of use have a NAS set up, most have an external hd, and prices for large compacity flash drives are dropping everyday. It is great this unit can play from 2 drives at the same time, I invision a large external hd stored away (if that could be a NAS, that would be sweet!), out of site, with a USB cable running to this unit, then usiing my 16gb thumbdrive to throw on a downloaded Bluray rip (usually 8-9 GB if MKV) and play that.




Does anyone know if you can copy from a USB Flash plugged into the side to a USB HD plugged into the back? This would make transferring files much easier for me. I'd like to have a 3.5" USB HD hidden away behind some other equipment, and only the box out front. I'd like to use an 8gb or 16gb USB Flash for transferring files from my office PC (ground floor) up to my theater (third floor). Not having to unhook the hard drive (and its associated external power supply) would make the file transfer much easier.

Another question/idea that might make transfer to/from a drive connected to this device... does anyone know of a NAS enclosure or pre-built NAS drive that also includes USB Slave? It would be great to be able to transfer files to the drive over the network and have the WD HD TV box access files from the same drive over USB. I haven't found a NAS yet that also has USB Slave functionality, but it doesn't seem like that exotic of an idea... anyone know of one?

I have been trying to follow the commetns on Engadget as well. I am interested in this as I have been trying to decide on a media player/streamer for a long time, ever since 2 years ago I bought a Phillips 5982 Divx dvd player with a USB port. That was a nice gateway for me to be able to play downloaded files on my plasma TV in the living room, but that player is limited. This WD unit seems to take the USB functionality to a whole other level of HD goodness.

Here is some pictures (not mine)

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshkawaii/WDTVPics#

more pics (Flickr Search)

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=wd+hd+tv

Here is a video from youtube (once again not mine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CONfyjNPMQ0

The comments on Engadget are getting alot of hits at the moment. If you are interested in this product (I already bought mine today) you should check it out:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/01/western-digital-quietly-intros-wd-tv-hd-media-player/3#comments

Very interesting device.

Can it display subtitles when playing VOB files?

Also can it handle DVD menus? If not, how do you play VOB files? Do you start by playing the IFO file or the first VOB file? How does it handle chapter points? Does it recognize chapter points in VOB files?

Thanks for any info.

I would love a network jack as well, but what do you expect for $99? I would be happy to fork over a little more dough for a networked version.

IMO, it seems fairly obvious why WD would jump in with a USB HDD streaming device; to sell more USB HDDs! A network jack would mean you wouldn't need to fork over dough for an external drive.

CD

I've read on Engadget that there is a List view that lets you view files in the drive/folder hierarchy... any chance that there's a "copy file" or similar command/option within this view? I can understand it being absent from the aggregated Thumbnail view, but I'm really hoping it's present in the List view.

NTFS for files > 4GB?

I would love a network jack as well, but what do you expect for $99? I would be happy to fork over a little more dough for a networked version.

Once this thing gets "officially" released (this thing isn't mentioned at all on the wd website), I hope some body hacks this little box to make it more "functional". (what do you think this thing is running, linux?)

gonna start putting it through some tests tomorrow (gotta get another HDMI cable).

speedbal

I wonder if you could rig something up with a low end NAS hooked up to this box?

I wonder if you could rig something up with a low end NAS hooked up to this box?

I'm trying myself to figure out if that will work... it all depends on which connection, network or USB, takes precedent. If USB takes precedent AND powering-down the WD HD TV box will release the NAS out to the network, this should work. That said, it's a lot of if and might require manually unplugging the drive from the WD HD TV box and possibly even rebooting the NAS.

Please forgive my ignorance in asking this question:

I do not currently own an HDTV (aside from my PC monitor @ 1440x900).

What would happen if I plug this WD unit into an SDTV via the composite outputs and then play a 720p or 1080p/1080i file?

Is there a limit on the output of the composite cables of 480p/480i? Will the media player simply downscale the HD output to fit properly in full screen on a 480i/480p TV? or will the display be out of whack and zoomed in/out looking because of the higher resolution?

I would appreciate it if someone would plug one of these into a SDTV and test some HD clips to report how the downscaled output looks.

Thanks.

NTFS for files > 4GB?

I have seen users confirm it does allow all different file formats. Again, from a marketing perspective, WD is launching this to sell external harddrives, so it is in their interest to allow as many differnet file formats and be able to play codecs/containers that house the largest file sizes.

What would happen if I plug this WD unit into an SDTV via the composite outputs and then play a 720p or 1080p/1080i file?

I would appreciate it if someone would plug one of these into a SDTV and test some HD clips to report how the downscaled output looks.

Thanks.

Admittedly I haven't had much time to test it out yet, but it was downscaling 1080p content for my 720p television. I would imagine it does the same over composite, but it's probably a bad idea to assume. I'll test it out later today when I have a chance if no one else has already answered the question.

anyone try an external ext3 drive?

I have seen users confirm it does allow all different file formats. Again, from a marketing perspective, WD is launching this to sell external harddrives, so it is in their interest to allow as many differnet file formats and be able to play codecs/containers that house the largest file sizes.
Agreed. But the WD site and literature I've seen does not specify which file systems are supported.

Any idea which media processor it uses?

Over at Macworld, a WD product manager commented on formats it could play. While not exhaustive in his reply, the one thing that pulled me to buy this toy is the AVCHD support.

I'll be getting one tonight and plan to test it tomorrow to see what it can do with my HD files. I'll post results tomorrow.

Any idea which media processor it uses?

I believe it's a sigma chip

Does this box not have a digital audio out except for the HDMI connection? Please tell me there is one.

Over at Macworld, a WD product manager commented on formats it could play.
Link: http://www.macworld.com/article/136510/2008/11/wdtv_first_look.html

The article says there's a digital optical output.

Does this box not have a digital audio out except for the HDMI connection? Please tell me there is one.


The pictures of the back with all the inputs on the WD product page shows an optical out.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

Sure looks like an optical out, doesn't it. I'm going to pass by BB today and check it out.

Please forgive my ignorance in asking this question:

I do not currently own an HDTV (aside from my PC monitor @ 1440x900).

What would happen if I plug this WD unit into an SDTV via the composite outputs and then play a 720p or 1080p/1080i file?

Is there a limit on the output of the composite cables of 480p/480i? Will the media player simply downscale the HD output to fit properly in full screen on a 480i/480p TV? or will the display be out of whack and zoomed in/out looking because of the higher resolution?

I would appreciate it if someone would plug one of these into a SDTV and test some HD clips to report how the downscaled output looks.

Thanks.

As a matter of fact I have mine connected to a SDTV via composite and I played a 720P .mkv file and it appears to just downconvert it and it played just fine. It was letterboxed since I was playing it on the 4:3 TV.

I still need to try it on my 60" Sony SXRD R60XBR1 HDTV and my Dell 24" 1920x1200 2408 LCD panel that has HDMI input.

I believe it's a sigma chip

which one? Will a daring person open and find out? The version of the sigma makes a difference.

Alright, I got one. BB@$99.

It's great! Played 11Gig MPEG2 recorded on PC of the air ATSC file On NTFS drive - no problem, both, 720p and 1080i.
Plays VOBs, looks like it wall automatically combining main movie files into one, skipping menus. Chapter skip does not work.

Picture looks fantastic on my 9' analog projector in 1080i.


Now, to cool you off, the not so great stuff:

- On my LCD quantization noise is plain annoying. It's not the best panel, but DVI to HDMI from my nVidia PC alway was smooth. I guess WD quantizing video output at 8 bit. TV's scaler just magnify it. (Quantization was not noticeable on analog projector.)
- Hard Drive power never turned off, even after unit itself is. It even never send a command to put drive into sleep or spin it down. You have to eject and unplug drive every time!
- Unit gets hot. Not horribly but more than typical other products.
- It locked-up when I pull USB drive without pressing eject first. Require cold restart.
- Searching long files not so pleasant, with max x16 it takes a while to FF to get to the second half of 2 hour flick. No other way to search long files.

- maybe just my TV, but 1080p output mode was breaking, loosing pixels on the bottom, cracking sound and fuzzy OSD. Don't mind this one yet but please verify?


Other that that, so far, it is good and recommended!

Cheers!

Does this box not have a digital audio out except for the HDMI connection? Please tell me there is one.

Just picked one up a few hours ago. Does indeed have an optical out, and it does passthrough DD 5.1. Haven't tested DTS 5.1 yet. Going to try a Blu-Ray .m2ts right now and see if it works (not expecting anything, but it would be great!)

Other than that, in the couple files I've tested so far, it's GREAT. This thing plays back 1080p x264 .mkv files like they're nothing.

Just picked one up a few hours ago. Does indeed have an optical out, and it does passthrough DD 5.1. Haven't tested DTS 5.1 yet. Going to try a Blu-Ray .m2ts right now and see if it works (not expecting anything, but it would be great!)

Other than that, in the couple files I've tested so far, it's GREAT. This thing plays back 1080p x264 .mkv files like they're nothing.

That's it, be back in 1.5 hrs

SuperUser:

What about subtitles when playing VOB files? Is there a button on the remote to turn subtitle on and off?

Thanks

anyone figure how to add thumbnails to the mkv files? i love this thing! i finally got one of my friends to switch to mkvs and skip bluray.

A few complaints I have so far (pretty minor, but kind of annoying nonetheless):

The media library SUCKS. I've disabled it and switched to list mode, and it's better. I'd recommend doing the same when you first hook it up.

1080p24 would be nice. Not sure if this may be achievable later via a firmware update or not.

I'm not sure, but it seems like this device is adding some kind of sharpening without any way to turn it off. Edges look very "enhanced", something I do not like to see. Again, this isn't really a deal breaker, and not extremely noticeable, but I do notice it. Perhaps it's not sharpening, but it has to do with its scaling algorithm it uses for 720p -> 1080p conversion. I don't notice this sharpening effects with 1080p files, and I notice it very much with 720p files, so it's got to be something along those lines. Anyone else notice this?

There's a remote button ("Options") to switch subtitles, but it doesn't work with .VOBs.

it only shows subtitles with srt files. maybe they can fix that with future updates

I stopped by BB and picked one up. I'll try it this evening. Am I correct in assuming that I can load a ripped DVD (VOB files) to a thumb drive, and play it through the device?

I'm not sure, but it seems like this device is adding some kind of sharpening without any way to turn it off. Edges look very "enhanced", something I do not like to see. Again, this isn't really a deal breaker, and not extremely noticeable, but I do notice it. Perhaps it's not sharpening, but it has to do with its scaling algorithm it uses for 720p -> 1080p conversion. I don't notice this sharpening effects with 1080p files, and I notice it very much with 720p files, so it's got to be something along those lines. Anyone else notice this?

Is the output resolution fixed, or is there a setting for it to be dynamic based on the file resolution (i.e. a 720p file is output at 720p, a 1080p file is output at 1080p). If it has some sort of dynamic output resolution setting, that may fix your problem (but at the same time rely on your display's scaling for 720p->1080p which may be better or worse).

Is the output resolution fixed, or is there a setting for it to be dynamic based on the file resolution (i.e. a 720p file is output at 720p, a 1080p file is output at 1080p). If it has some sort of dynamic output resolution setting, that may fix your problem (but at the same time rely on your display's scaling for 720p->1080p which may be better or worse).

It has no dynamic resolution switching, therefore I leave it at 1080p60. Yes, I agree, my display would do a MUCH better job at scaling the 720p files to 1080p, but at this time with current firmware, the WD player will only output the resolution it is told to output. When I get home, I'll switch the native output to 720p and see if my 720p content looks better.

It has no dynamic resolution switching, therefore I leave it at 1080p60. Yes, I agree, my display would do a MUCH better job at scaling the 720p files to 1080p, but at this time with current firmware, the WD player will only output the resolution it is told to output. When I get home, I'll switch the native output to 720p and see if my 720p content looks better.

If convenience of switching the output resolution becomes an issue, you may want to see which affect is worse, upscaling 720p or downscaling 1080p... not an ideal solution, but if 1080p content downscaled to 720p takes less of a hit, that might be the way to go. How much content you have in each resolution might also make the decision for you. Good luck!

I went ahead and bit on this. I will pick it up after work and see how well it works for me to replace my MediaGate player.

A couple of things we need to get cleared up...

1) does it do DTS pass through?

2) what is the max bitrate for smooth playback of H264/MKV...? or what is the bitrate of the videos you guys are testing? some HD rips are over 10mbit.

3) can it display subtitles embedded in MKV files?

Thanks!

A couple of things we need to get cleared up...

1) does it do DTS pass through?

2) what is the max bitrate for smooth playback of H264/MKV...? or what is the bitrate of the videos you guys are testing? some HD rips are over 10mbit.

3) can it display subtitles embedded in MKV files?

Thanks!

I will test the first two when I get home. I don't know about question 3, as I don't have any MKV files with embedded subtitles.

ok so this thing is pretty awesome, especially for $100. it plays my 720p and 1080p mkvs better than my pc. will prolly pick one up for the bedroom also. this thing is pretty much what ive always wanted someone to develop. its not perfect but its pretty darn close really. the pic it great on my pioneer and the sound is hooked directly to my yamaha with no problems.

i know this is avs but lets try not to get TOO technical and tear this thing apart with tech spec mumbo jumbo. :) best 100 i spent in a while.

i Like to collect cartoons from the 90"s and its so much nicer having it all archived on a Hard drive rather than a bunch of dvds, that u have to keep swapping.

Now under settings it has an "Auto" for the options under "resolutions". i would assume that means it changes automatically for the source, i could be wrong though.


i couldnt get it to play WMVHD movie i have, though. they were 1080p also.

bottom line... GO BUY THIS WHILE ITS ON SALE!! :D

No subtitles for VOBs. Looks like it will ignore all and any additional data included in DVD stream. It will just play VOB end to end. It will however allow you to select different audio tracks. It supposed to support "Subtitle- SRT (UTF-8)".
More specs: wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2697

Display Resolution: It will output in selected format only, no matter what source material is.
In "Auto" mode resolution will match HDMI display data channel. In my case when set to auto it will output 768P even when there is no such thing in the menu.

Cheers!

bought the last one at the BB!

I just tested out the WD TV HD Media Player, and ti can play the following format:
1. File recorded by Panasonic HD camcorder (HDC-SD1) in .m2ts format (1080i)
2. File recorded by Sony HD camcorder (1080i)
3. File recorded by Hauppauge HD PVR (720p and 1080i). But need to rename the file extension from .ts to .m2ts
4. File in .MKV (720p) downloaded from web
5. File in WMVHD (720p and 1080i)

Very happy with it

Does anyone know if this device can output PAL (e.g for HD plasma/lcd displays based in UK, Australia). (or is it irrelevant when using HDMI?)

Thanks.
- Sandun.

When playing on my projector 92" the Mkv's etc all fit incorrectly an inch missing on each side a couple inches etc, seems if I magnify the image to x2, then go back to the normal x1 size it fits the screen correctly.

Anyone else have this issue. Rather annoying I have to magnify the image to x2 then go back for it to fit properly.

Picked it up tonight plugged in the Hdrive and off it went no issues besides getting it to fit the screen correctly. THis beats the C**P out of transcoding/encoding etc for Xbox360 Tversity.

DAMN, I'm in love!!! Nice optical out, throwing every mkv file I'm throwing at it!!!!!!!!

User Guide for WD HD Media Player

Well, no RMVB support either...

:cool:

Still having the screen issues it played one wmv I had but not the other 2. Strange Mkv's no problem.

I seem to have to switch between normal/widescreen and do the magnify and back to normal each time.

Sorry, system requires 3 messages from me to put a download link. This is #3. Next will be a link.

OK, here it is

User Guide (http://rapidshare.com/files/160425368/UserGuide.pdf) for WD HD Media Player.

Yea, I'm having problems with Kung.Fu.Panda.NLsubs.WVC1.1080p-VisualScumBagz.wmv but it's just one file so far, I can look for a different format

OK, here it is

User Guide (http://rapidshare.com/files/160425368/UserGuide.pdf) for WD HD Media Player.

thanks

It DOES support DTS passthrough! Just tested it with both a 1080p file and a regular DVD rip.

Also, tested it with a short 1080p 15mbit x264 file. Video played smoothly, but the audio kept cutting out. HOWEVER, not sure if this is because I was playing it from a flash drive or not. I'll get the file to a hard drive and re-test it.

I am completely stunned. Just played a .m2ts file ripped straight from Blu Ray (I, Robot to be exact). Switched audio streams flawlessly. DTS working and Dolby Digital working. This movie is AVC encoded at a VERY high bitrate, and this thing played it without a problem. I am truly amazed.

just hooked this up and here are some things

1) 1080p mkv from hfs+ partition is unwatchable, artifacting (<- spelling) all over, going to try 1080p mkv ntfs in the next few hours.

2) im using optical and i got dts and dd from spdif

3) will not play blu ray backups that have been converted to iso has to be .m2ts files. this sucks b/c i have backed up my collection but if i want to watch on this i have to un-iso them.

4) have a back up (superbad) with single hd audio stream, it will not play it b/c it cant down convert like powerdvd.

so far not to impressed with it, the mkv off hfs+ sucks, but if it works on ntfs oh well. and the non iso playback is going to probably make me return this unfourtinally.

p.s. this is probably a duh but i tried to hook up my external blu ray but its said unrecognizable usb device, so that is a no go .

Is there a harmony remote code for this? Probably a dum question it's in the harmony software but doest turn the media player on or off, nor could I get it to learn the code.

nevermind works now

There are several confirmations of DVD (ISO/IFO/VOB), but does it just play the video, or does it also fully support DVD menus? And if so, does chapter skip/rev work for DVD sources?

Does it output 1080i HDMI and audio out from the RCAs at the same time? I have a TV with DVI in.

Does it output 1080i HDMI and audio out from the RCAs at the same time? I have a TV with DVI in.

Not sure but I'm using optical out and it's working great, very nice

bitstream through hdmi? 5.1, 7.1, hd audio formats?

I just wrote a (somewhat) detailed review here:
http://maddhat.com/?p=31

More pictures to come later.

Is there an easy way to add DVD Art to my Mkv's etc?

anyone have a USB hub and a couple of external drives?
I want to know what happens if you hook up more than one drive.

I know why they did it, but the lack of a lan connection kills it for me. However, it's telling when a big name like WD throws it's hit in the media player ring.

K

anyone have a USB hub and a couple of external drives?
I want to know what happens if you hook up more than one drive.

I'd be interested to hear if it works via a usb hub, at least that would kinda solve one issue.

K

I know why they did it, but the lack of a lan connection kills it for me. However, it's telling when a big name like WD throws it's hit in the media player ring.

K

I was at least slightly shocked that WD released this product. WD released those 'book' network drives that restricted access to media files based on file extension, out of fear of contributing to copyright infringement. And now they release this thing, which is arguably a bit-torrenter's wet dream.

The lack of network connectivity is no issue to me. I understand why some like it, but I don't see the sense in leaving a computer running all the time to essentially serve as a dumb drive for a player in another room.

Isn't there anyway to sort of made a kludge network for this thing by networking a nas drive that is connected to the wdtv? If playback compatibility is as good as it appears to be, people will probably come up with something to get around sneaker networking.

Looks neat, seems a few things aren't 100% cleared up though

1 - DVD menus?
2 - high bitrate (15mb/s) mkv's ok?
3 - internally decode dts streams
4 - subtitles in DVD's
5 - subtitles in MKV's

6 - Thumbnail view - Will it pick up folder.jpg art (or cover.jpg) for music and for movies
7 - Thumbnail view - Will views stick for certain directories e.g. music directory I want thumbnail view and for music directory I want list?

Looks neat, seems a few things aren't 100% cleared up though

1 - DVD menus?
2 - high bitrate (15mb/s) mkv's ok?
3 - internally decode dts streams
4 - subtitles in DVD's
5 - subtitles in mkv's

DVD menus, AFAIK, do not work.

It plays 15mbps MKV x264 files just fine. It also plays 30mbit AVC Blu-Ray M2TS files just fine.

I don't know if it can internally decode DTS, but it does do passthrough. Why would you want to internally decode anyway?

Subtitles in DVDs are reported to not work.

I haven't tested subtitles in MKVs.

Here's some more info about the player:

WD TV HD Media Player (http://www.hdtvinfo.eu/news/hd-video-formats/wd-tv-hd-media-player.html)

It's a pitty it doesn't come with an Ethernet connector, otherwise it would be a very nice streaming box!

been waiting for something like this!

currently using an xbox 360 to play mkvs converted to mp4.

Since I cant play 1080p and subs on the xbox will this do the job? I heard subs in mkv files dont work unless you make them seperate as a srt file. does it support 5.1 audio (which the xbox doesnt?)

Might need to wait a while but anyone found a place to get this in the uk?thanks

I don't know if it can internally decode DTS, but it does do passthrough. Why would you want to internally decode anyway?.

For the bedroom where i don't have a reciever (as dts needs one)

can someone try a blu-ray vc1 file

Can anyone post here the size (L x W x H) of the box (better if you could also include the weight of the package). I'm asking because I plan to order this from Best Buy and have it shipped to my country. Thanks.

Looks neat, seems a few things aren't 100% cleared up though

1 - DVD menus?
2 - high bitrate (15mb/s) mkv's ok?
3 - internally decode dts streams
4 - subtitles in DVD's
5 - subtitles in MKV's

6 - Thumbnail view - Will it pick up folder.jpg art (or cover.jpg) for music and for movies
7 - Thumbnail view - Will views stick for certain directories e.g. music directory I want thumbnail view and for music directory I want list?

It does different audio streams and subtitles in mkv's if they're there. Just have to press the option button

[QUOTE=pastishe;15001597]Looks neat, seems a few things aren't 100% cleared up though

1 - DVD menus?
2 - high bitrate (15mb/s) mkv's ok?
3 - internally decode dts streams
4 - subtitles in DVD's
5 - subtitles in MKV's

6 - Thumbnail view - Will it pick up folder.jpg art (or cover.jpg) for music and for movies
7 - Thumbnail view - Will views stick for certain directories e.g. music directory I want thumbnail view and for music directory I want list?[/QUOTE


6. Doesnt seem to pick up my folder.jpg art for movies not sure what I may be doing wrong.

7. Looks like it'd one or the other when it comes to thumbnails/List

anyone have a USB hub and a couple of external drives?
I want to know what happens if you hook up more than one drive.The manual says it doesn't support hubs. There are two USB ports on the unit that can be used simutaneously.

As a solution to not having a network connection I am thinking about getting a second Thermaltake USB docking station (N0029USU) for my SATA drive. It would make the process of transferring a bit easier by not having to disconnect an entire enclosure.

Does anyone know about support for the XFS file system? I'm looking at some NAS enclosures that also have USB slave support, but for support of files over 4gb they require the drive to be formatted through the enclosure's WebUI in the XFS file system. Can anyone confirm if the WD HD TV will or will not read the XFS file system? Thanks!

Just tried a 39GB m2ts from There will be blood and it's not working?
EDIT: tried a m2ts from so I married an axe murderer and it worked.

After this video review, I am sold!
http://www.vimeo.com/2137683

I just wrote a (somewhat) detailed review here:
http://maddhat.com/?p=31

More pictures to come later.

wow, Sigma SMP8635LF, enough said!!

thank you!!

Looks neat, seems a few things aren't 100% cleared up though

1 - DVD menus?
2 - high bitrate (15mb/s) mkv's ok?
3 - internally decode dts streams
4 - subtitles in DVD's
5 - subtitles in MKV's

6 - Thumbnail view - Will it pick up folder.jpg art (or cover.jpg) for music and for movies
7 - Thumbnail view - Will views stick for certain directories e.g. music directory I want thumbnail view and for music directory I want list?

3. I don't think it internally decodes DTS. I'm in the same boat as you I have it hooked up to a bedroom tv without a decoder and the TV say it's an unsupported audio format. I'm going to try it with the audio RCA's and see if that works.

wow, Sigma SMP8635LF, enough said!!

thank you!!

Unfortunately (in my case anyways), my 8635-based Popcorn Hour is not flawless on 1080 content, especially high-motion scenes (lots of b/r frames). Absolutely awesome on anything else though, and let's face it - convenience of a small settop vs a HTPC is very nice :)

I believe this is @ Best Buy on sale - can always return it if it ends up being unsuitable.

I got this yesterday @ BB, only 1 left on the shelf. after 1 day of testing. here is what I think.

- Its nice and small and so powerful
- plays all my media, but not flv, rmvb.
- Mp4 video I converted for iPhone does show the cover art I put in.
- iPhone plug in no see, older ipod plug in see the music.
- all MKV files download from the net plays nicely, the DTS one need to have the optical cable plug in to your receiver for sound to come out.
- MKV with embed sub titles don't work, only .sub file works.

anyone can help me out with this
I got a HDMI to DVI cable, hook up to my Dell 19 wide screen monitor dvd/vga (2005FPW), I can change mode to 1080p 60 no problem. couldn't do it on my other DVD or PS3 to this monitor, I guess it don't have HDCP output embedded .

can I get a HDMI to Component cable or HDMI to VGA cable to hookup my plasma 5 year old that only have component and VGA?

so did some search the HDFURY - DVI TO VGA(RGB) CONVERTER (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011402&p_id=4559&seq=1&format=2) $60.42 gonna try that.

Still cannot get it to see cover art for MKV tried Folder.jpg, filename.jpg, cover.jpg nothing works butthe sample MP4 that come included have cover art and show up. Does it have to be MP4 for cover art?

The couple of CD albums I have added cover art works though it shows cover art for each song, not for the folder.

This is very frustrating a long with the constant magnifying back and forth for it to format correctly to screen.

Has anyone got cover art to work please share the steps.

Was struggling to decide on getting one from BB over the weekend... Afterall there weren't much info then (and I had some bad experience with impulse purchase on media player...) On Sunday, much more info was available, so Monday morning I decided to get one. BB online was backordered, my nearest BB were out of stock too, luckily one farther away BB still had that. I picked it up last nite. :) The sales told me these are sold-out so quickly, I bet she's wondering what this thing does...

First impression, man, it's small, tiny, fit into your palm! Hooked it up, plugged and played, UI is simple, but functional. Didn't try much yet, tried a couple mpeg1, avi, vob, played very nicely. Haven't got a chance to try DVD ISO yet, hope to try that tonite. Heard there will be no menu, no chapter support (that's fine with me), but I do want subtitles... so let's see...

Another thing I like and to my surprise, not only the menu supports multiple languages (including traditional chinese. :), filenames do support UTF8 international languages. Meaning I don't have to rename my files, and my in-laws could read the chinese filenames themselves and use this thing.

One concern pointed out by others, is that even powered off, the attached external usb drive (flash or hdd) would still be on, so, need to unplug each time after use? Not very nice...

WD really did a great job here, at least I am looking to buy a my passport to go with it... just deciding on the size. :)

Anybody know if it will play a *.ts file?

Anybody know if it will play a *.ts file?Not with the .ts extension---I simply renamed my .ts files with a .mpeg extension and they play fine.

I think I've found a solution for networking with this WD HD TV device. I've found that NDAS devices based on the Ximeta chipset (I'm looking at OKGEAR LAN-SI from NewEgg, also supports NTFS file system for large files) can operate with USB as well as Network (drivers required on client PCs), just not at the same time. Luckily, USB takes precedent over Network when both are plugged in at the same time. So if the NDAS drive enclosure isn't seeing a USB connection, it will switch to Network access.

The one kink I see in this right away is that the WD HD TV apparently doesn't power down the USB connection when the device is powered off (I guess it's more like a standby mode). I've already thought of a way around this... plug the WD HD TV into a switched power plug on an AV receiver, that way the only time it's physically getting power is when the AV receiver is turned on. When the AV receiver is on, the the WD HD TV is on, and the NDAS connects to it via usb. When the AV receiver is off, the WD HD TV is completely without power, and the NDAS connects to the network.

There are two questions I have for owners about how this may work. First, doe the WD HD TV come all the way on as soon as it is plugged in, or do you have to send a power-on command with the remote first? If you have to send a remote power-on command, I could easily program this into the Harmony power-on/activity routine. Second, does the WD HD TV retain settings (resolution mainly) settings when it is unplugged?

Thanks in advance to any owners who can confirm or deny this.

I just wrote a (somewhat) detailed review here:
http://maddhat.com/?p=31

More pictures to come later.

Ah that stinks! Engadget brought you down!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/04/wd-tv-hd-media-player-smacked-up-flipped-rubbed-down/

Not with the .ts extension---I simply renamed my .ts files with a .mpeg extension and they play fine.

Superb, thx.

For all, I'm not a codec/file/container expert and have not tried every combination but...

Got this box yesterday and have played with it quite a bit. Played many different files from both USB drive and thumb drive of varying bitrates and it played everything advertised without a hiccup. It also played *.iso.

As said, it doesn't do subtitles but I don't understand why so many care about that. It has quirks reading file metadata and cover art, etc.

Bottom line is the interface is not the fastest and it is definitely not as pretty or well organized as some so it's not a giant killer replacing high end storage solutions. But as an inexpensive solution for playing files, this thing rocks!

Has anyone played with the included software? Is there perhaps a way to use it to pack metadata and covers into video files without transcoding?

Thanks in advance to any owners who can confirm or deny this.

I'm at the office and my unit is at home so I can't test but...

If memory serves, I'm 99.9% sure that when I plugged it in, it fired up without needing a power on code from the remote.

I'm at the office and my unit is at home so I can't test but...

If memory serves, I'm 99.9% sure that when I plugged it in, it fired up without needing a power on code from the remote.

Great to hear. With the $99 cost of the box, $50 for the NDAS enclosure, and $50ish for a 500gb SATA drive, this comes in at around $100 less than a PCH and 500gb Drive (sans some advanced features like YouTube and Bit Torrent client). If there were an option for copying from one USB device to another this somewhat elaborate and cobbled-together attempt at adding networking wouldn't be necessary... I guess that's what firmware updates are for.

you need to power it on via the remote. It doesn;t just power on.
Anyone figure out cover art yet?

Is everyone having the same format issue is it just myunit needing to magnify and back.

Hi

Anyone try it with Lacie d2 external hdd. Is it working with it?

Regards

I've got 2 drives plugged into a USB hub and I can browse both drives, no problem

As everyone on this list, I was amazed to find the sunday BB flyer and see this gizmo and immediately went web searching and found the details (as best as was available on Sun.) and felt it was worth a try - after all its only 99 clams.

So far it has played pretty much anything I have thrown at it including 720p HD MKV content, 1080iHD .m2ts, .mpg and .ts(after renaming to .mpg, .ts is not recognized)....

Before I get to the file formats it wont play, here is one issue I found -
I have a PBS program recorded from OTA HD 1080i transmission and encoded xvid.720x400.1611kbps.mp3.160.vbr
Now here is the issue I found - I notice that the audio starts to go out of sync gradually after the first 45 mins and gets progressively worse as the program progresses.
NOW, this is specific to the WD TV player as when I play the same file on my computer it does not suffer from this audio sync problem.

Anyone else having the same issue???

I also found that the player has problems playing standard WMV files that I have downloaded from the web over the years.

What I TRUELY love (beyond its HD Playback) - ability to also play FLAC for my live music show archive!!!

My gripes about the player (thus far in my discovery):
1 - No frame advance (I can pause, but cannot advance a frame)
2 - Ability to seek into a file (rather than skip at 16x into a long movie - quite a pain as its not that fast when the media is on a memory stick).
....more to follow as I discover stuff...

Looks like a great device.
I wonder how it would pair up with a Hauppage HD PVR...

I have a slight issue with the WD TV. I plugged in my 1TB external drive, formatted in HFS, and though everything works great on the WD TV, it keeps telling me it can't aggregate the library or something, and that it needs 3814MB of space to do that.

Any idea how to get rid of the message?

Does WD HD will do any upconversion to 720p/1080i, if the media file is of regualr resolution (sort of 680 X 300) which has been converted to Xvid from a DVD?
Thx

I have a slight issue with the WD TV. I plugged in my 1TB external drive, formatted in HFS, and though everything works great on the WD TV, it keeps telling me it can't aggregate the library or something, and that it needs 3814MB of space to do that.

Any idea how to get rid of the message?

I think you will have to clear 3814MB in order to get rid of that message and access your files. From the manual, it looks like it uses a portion of the drive space for file management/caching.

I think you will have to clear 3814MB in order to get rid of that message and access your files. From the manual, it looks like it uses a portion of the drive space for file management/caching.

3814mb is A LOT of space for caching and file management. Do you have journaling enabled on your hard drive? If so, you may have to disable it.

...
As said, it doesn't do subtitles but I don't understand why so many care about that.
...


I too had never considered the issue of subtitles until I started looking at media streaming of VOB/MPG files, and then I discovered a lot of problems in all kinds/genres of movies.

Try watching one of the Lord of the Rings films without any subtitles. Unless you are fluent in Elvish it will be tough to understand a few of the conversations. Same with Star Wars movies (alien languages). Even many non-SciFi/Fantasy movies can have small bits of foreign dialogue in the middle of the movie which are subtitled. And of course any foreign language film that doesn't have an audio track in your language of choice would require full subtitles.

I guess if you never watch any films with any foreign languages spoken you will be OK without any subtitles.


NOTE: Some transcoders like Handbrake can burn subtitles onto the video which will solve the subtitle issue but transcoding usually introduces some amount of video quality degradation which becomes really obvious on big-screen TV.

3814mb is A LOT of space for caching and file management. Do you have journaling enabled on your hard drive? If so, you may have to disable it.

I didn't add this: I have about 150mb taken up with 930GB free! So no idea what the deal is. Did it with my other HFS portable 320GB drive, as well requesting more space, despite playing everything just fine...

I'm returning the thing anyway. I'm frustrated by three stupid problems:

1.) It runs REALLY hot.

2.) It doesn't turn off your hard drives when you power it off, not even Passport 2.5" drives. Just ridiculous. Who wants to run their hard drives 24/7?

3.) Some really odd over-sharpening on some material that isn't there on other media players I've tried.

Superb, thx.
Got this box yesterday and have played with it quite a bit. Played many different files from both USB drive and thumb drive of varying bitrates and it played everything advertised without a hiccup. It also played *.iso.

wouldnt support *.iso for me, dvd or blu ray. anyone else have their .02 to put in on this?

For those upset about the the unit not powering down drives when in standby there is an easy fix for most using this in an HT setup... plug the unit into the switched power port on the back of your AVR, this way it's only getting power when the AVR is powered on.

Manual says that dvr-ms files (come from MCE and VMC) are supported and I gave them a try (all files were unprotected).
Well, SD content plays nicely until one tries fast forward or rewind: Playback halts and player gets back to folder view.
HD content have audio hiccups, playback freezes and unfreezes.
I dreamed to view embedded subtitles in dvr-ms: No way.
Unforunately, dvr-ms is a failure, at least so far.

Does WD HD will do any upconversion to 720p/1080i, if the media file is of regualr resolution (sort of 680 X 300) which has been converted to Xvid from a DVD?
Thx

I must say, I actually did get a chance to test some SD content ripped from DVDs, and the player does a pretty damn good job at upscaling. It's obviously not as good as a true upscaling DVD player, but I was pleasantly surprised.

wouldnt support *.iso for me, dvd or blu ray. anyone else have their .02 to put in on this?

My attempt to play a DVD ISO failed last night. I have a few other files that I can try later today if I do not get too inebriated playing the election drinking game. :D

I too had never considered the issue of subtitles until I started looking at media streaming of VOB/MPG files, and then I discovered a lot of problems in all kinds/genres of movies.

Try watching one of the Lord of the Rings films without any subtitles. Unless you are fluent in Elvish it will be tough to understand a few of the conversations. Same with Star Wars movies (alien languages). Even many non-SciFi/Fantasy movies can have small bits of foreign dialogue in the middle of the movie which are subtitled. And of course any foreign language film that doesn't have an audio track in your language of choice would require full subtitles.

I guess if you never watch any films with any foreign languages spoken you will be OK without any subtitles.
I've never really used these before so my experience is limited and you are totally right.

wouldnt support *.iso for me, dvd or blu ray. anyone else have their .02 to put in on this?
Clearly some things that are not "supported" are working at least in part. Maybe someone will do a systematic and thorough test to chart exactly which files/codecs/wrappers work. Come on, business is slow these days, who has some free time? :D

I just got one yesterday too and my .iso dvd files work fine. My files however are movie only, without menu or other extras so that might be the issue.

I think I've found a solution for networking with this WD HD TV device.

I also have an approach to this idea. May be someone who understands the problem better than I can elaborate on this matter. I found that USB Device Server exists. It allows to network and manage several USB drives.
Here are links:
http://www.crn.com/hardware/211600856

http://www.seh.de/english/products/net/myutn50/myutn50txt.htm

Not sure how to attach USB drive simultaneously to this server and to WD player... Note, manual claims that WD player does not support USB hubs.

I just got one yesterday too and my .iso dvd files work fine. My files however are movie only, without menu or other extras so that might be the issue.

i bet thats it, my iso are complete heirachial backup of dvd / blur-ray.

I also have an approach to this idea. May be someone who understand the problem better than I can elaborate on this matter. I found that USB Device Server exists. It allows to network and manage several USB drives.

Not sure how to attach USB drive simultaneously to this server and to WD player... Note, manual claims that WD player does not support USB hubs.
Sounds good, but it looks like it costs more than the WD Media Player itself ($160+ on Froogle).

I picked up and hooked up mine last evening. I was a little unhappy that it would not play my home videos (AVI's). However I am currently using the included software to convert them to an AVI format it will play (hopefully). It is going to take a couple days since we are talking about amost 300 video clips of varying sizes. If the conversion does not work, it will go back to BestBuys.

I did not realize the covered port in the back was an optical out (I was thinking it was another USB-B type port). I have the unit hooked directly to my TV via the HDMI connection (HDMI to HDMI). My ripped movie DVD's play and look great (this kind of thing is going to do to physical DVD discs what digital audio devices is doing audio CD's!). I was wondering if I can still get audio through the optical port with the HDMI port active? Is so, I might run an optical cable to my SS system.....

Two questions.

Any idea if this will work with a Drobo? (Something I've been looking into to replace my file server)

How would you think this compares to say an AppleTV/mini with XBMC installed? (allows for networking to file server)

User Guide for WD HD Media Player

Yes, I've been searching online for a user's guide. Anyone found a link?

Couple of thoughts after using it real breifly.

Not being able to jump 15 min or by sections is kind of annoying for movies. Hopefully thats an easy fix for a firmware update

Logitech Harmony remotes DO Work with it. Just add a Media Center PC device, select Western Digital as the Manuf. and it'll be the suggested Model. Works flawlessly with just one remote

Also an interesting link with comments from someone on the WD team - http://forums.macworld.com/thread/106664?start=15&tstart=0

Yes, I've been searching online for a user's guide. Anyone found a link?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14999467#post14999467

Couple of thoughts after using it real breifly.

Not being able to jump 15 min or by sections is kind of annoying for movies. Hopefully thats an easy fix for a firmware update

Logitech Harmony remotes DO Work with it. Just add a Media Center PC device, select Western Digital as the Manuf. and it'll be the suggested Model. Works flawlessly with just one remote

Also an interesting link with comments from someone on the WD team - http://forums.macworld.com/thread/106664?start=15&tstart=0

funny he lists usb hub support but mine already supports it? Just shows up as usb1 than the drive names...

Back with a report...

I bought one specifically to see if it would play a Blu-ray backup with subtitles in an AVCHD folder. Knowing that in PS3 if you put a drive with a Blu-ray structure in an AVCHD folder it will allow you to choose a subtitle, I was hoping this gizmo will do the trick also. Well, much to my dismay, it will not do that. Pressing play/enter on the root folder will just open the folder requiring you to drill down until you choose the m2ts file. So essentially you are just playing an m2ts file. Which it does admirably well. But that was not my goal.

So it goes back to BB tomorrow. I already have a PS3 for m2ts streaming.

So WD this thing is pretty amazing...does anyone know if the sigma chip supports bitstream of truehd or dts-ma? This really is all that is missing for me at the moment...

I see the same artifacting on the 1080 mkv files. I've tried from an HFS formatted drive and also copied it to a Fat32 USB stick. Both had identical problems. Strangely, I have one 1080 movie that plays perfectly. I can't figure out why.

Anyone with cover art tips. Nothing seems to work? I guess unless the file download or whatever doesn;t contain the metadata it can't be done?

Picked one up yesterday and pretty happy with it so far. Downloaded a 720p MKV with DTS but unfortunately my DTS receiver is not attached to my LCD. Do some MKV files carry both a 2 channel stereo track and a DTS track? If so how do I switch audio tracks in the WDTV?

Thanks

I have a slight issue with the WD TV. I plugged in my 1TB external drive, formatted in HFS, and though everything works great on the WD TV, it keeps telling me it can't aggregate the library or something, and that it needs 3814MB of space to do that.

Any idea how to get rid of the message?

Make sure that the drive is partitioned using Apple Partition Map and not GUID. Also, make sure that Journaling is disabled. If it's GUID, you'll have to reformat it to change it to APM, but if you simply need to disable Journaling, you can use this terminal command:

diskutil disableJournal /Volumes/VolumeName

funny he lists usb hub support but mine already supports it? Just shows up as usb1 than the drive names...

Any idea on the max number of drives via the usb hub?

K

Just seen it on play for 79.99 UKP from 17 nov
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2144/1411/-/7977460/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/Product.html?searchtype=genre :)

Any idea on the max number of drives via the usb hub?

K

Think it said 2 somewhere

Think it said 2 somewhere

Ok, thanks. I thought that it had two usb ports? (one back, one on the side?). I hope it can see more than two via usb....although if that was 2 per usb, at least that would give a possible max of 8TB of local space, which would be ok.

Can anyone confirm this?

K

Just seen it on play for 79.99 UKP from 17 nov
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2144/1411/-/7977460/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/Product.html?searchtype=genre :)

Quote from Play.com website...

"Collect without limits -
There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space."


MMmmm

Quote from Play.com website...

"Collect without limits -
There's no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space."


MMmmm

I think that means you can plug 2 usb drives in at one time! you can swap those with others, the no hubs bit is plug in block types hubs :)

I tried a number of MKVs. All 720p were good. One 1080p (I am Legend - sample) pixelated. A few others were OK. Thought it might be the flash drive, but it also happened with an external HDD.

Does anybody know if the Sigma chip take advantage of DXVA compliant rips?

I think that means you can plug 2 usb drives in at one time! you can swap those with others, the no hubs bit is plug in block types hubs :)

Not sure, a techie guy from WD was talking about adding usb hub support....

Lastly, did someone say it does not support TS files? (output from Tsmuxer?)

K

Spend $100 more and get something better like popcorn hour a-110.

It has network support, HDMI 1.3, TRUE HD, DTS, plays 1080p flawlessly, bitorrent, youtube, firmware updates, and everything else this is missing.

Any idea on the max number of drives via the usb hub?

K

no, I've just tried 2

I tried a number of MKVs. All 720p were good. One 1080p (I am Legend - sample) pixelated. A few others were OK. Thought it might be the flash drive, but it also happened with an external HDD.

Does anybody know if the Sigma chip take advantage of DXVA compliant rips?

Have you tried the same 1080p file on any other media player? Could just be the number of ref frames and might also pixelat on other streamers.

K

Have you tried the same 1080p file on any other media player? Could just be the number of ref frames and might also pixelat on other streamers.

K

It plays fine on a PC using many players.

Spend $100 more and get something better like popcorn hour a-110.

It has network support, HDMI 1.3, TRUE HD, DTS, plays 1080p flawlessly, bitorrent, youtube, firmware updates, and everything else this is missing.

I agree...kinda; I mean I don't have an a-110, but I am surprised at how much play this little WD box is getting. When I first saw it here, I thought "hmm...doesn't look as if it offers anything new whatsoever...but I can see why WD would market something like this". To me, and I know I've said this before, this is a little one-off from WD in the hopes of selling more...well, let's see; who's the biggest maker of external, USB drives? Is it Seagate? Is it Maxtor? No, it's...WD! :eek:

I haven't followed the thread post by post, but it doesn't seem this unit handles every format users are trying to throw at it, so nothing groundbreaking there. Some keep saying "if only this thing had a network connection, it would be great"! Well, then why didn't you just buy any number of other devices with a network connection? Others that keep hoping for a v2.0 with an ethernet port, I just don't see that happening. And for those who say they like it because they prefer a USB drive to streaming...well, I can't imagine why schlepping a drive around, as opposed to central storage of all your files, to share at every device around the house, would be better, but I suppose you have your reasons.

No, the only thing I see going for this device is it's small, for what that's worth (?), and it's cheap. And I guess the USB thing works for those who can't, just absolutely can't pull hard wire, and are looking to stream files that don't work well (yet) over wireless. But I would say this thing has a shelf-life of about, uh...

Just my .02,

CD

I agree...kinda; I mean I don't have an a-110, but I am surprised at how much play this little WD box is getting. When I first saw it here, I thought "hmm...doesn't look as if it offers anything new whatsoever...but I can see why WD would market something like this". To me, and I know I've said this before, this is a little one-off from WD in the hopes of selling more...well, let's see; who's the biggest maker of external, USB drives? Is it Seagate? Is it Maxtor? No, it's...WD! :eek:

I haven't followed the thread post by post, but it doesn't seem this unit handles every format users are trying to throw at it, so nothing groundbreaking there. Some keep saying "if only this thing had a network connection, it would be great"! Well, then why didn't you just buy any number of other devices with a network connection? Others that keep hoping for a v2.0 with an ethernet port, I just don't see that happening. And for those who say they like it because they prefer a USB drive to streaming...well, I can't imagine why schlepping a drive around, as opposed to central storage of all your files, to share at every device around the house, would be better, but I suppose you have your reasons.

No, the only thing I see going for this device is it's small, for what that's worth (?), and it's cheap. And I guess the USB thing works for those who can't, just absolutely can't pull hard wire, and are looking to stream files that don't work well (yet) over wireless. But I would say this thing has a shelf-life of about, uh...

Just my .02,

CD
It uses the same sigma chipset as far as I know, if you don't have or need the network capabilities, this player is 115 dollars cheaper, or ~ 135 dollars cheaper after shipping as the a-110 while doing everything that a stand alone popcorn hour does, am I right?

It uses the same sigma chipset as far as I know as the popcorn hour which means, if you don't have or need the network capabilities, this player is 115 dollars cheaper, or ~ 135 dollars cheaper after shipping as the a-110 while doing everything that a stand alone popcorn hour does, am I right?

Like I said, I admit I haven't followed the thread closely enough to know if it has the same chipset as the PH, or plays everything it or other machines will. My point was more this doesn't offer anything new or over existing devices, and additionally doesn't have network capabilities.

Again, IMO, all things being equal, don't you think streaming locally from a drive will kinda go the way of playing a DVD locally in a DVD player? I just can't think of any advantage in having a drive in the Family Room, a drive in the Bedroom, a drive in the HT if you have one; a drive in the Office...none of which can communicate with each other...instead of just centrally storing everything on one file server, that can be accessed from every device in the house.

Now, I know all things are not equal; as I said, to me the reason for USB drives is a) you can't hard-wire a network and you're trying to stream files that don't work well wirelessly or b) you have files that are only native if they're streamed locally, ala PS3 (and I'm sure others). But don't you think, in quick time, both those issues are likely to be alleviated; wireless technology will improve to the point where you can stream any kind of HD file, and machines that don't already, will do FW updates that allow those formats to be streamed over a network natively?

I guess I do, which makes me think of this device as nothing but a quick, inexpensive little pit-stop on the way to true, whole-house media streaming. And that's fine; I'm not trying to run down anyone who's bought it. I just said I was surprised it was getting so much interest.

CD

I see your point, myself with only one TV in the house and all it's a great idea, as you say it's nothing new, but everything a stand alone ph at less than 1/2 the price. I keep my movies somewhat on the same machine but it's no big deal to throw over a few on a few hundred GB drives and bring them down to the living room. Still that much better than going down to the mail box or driving to the movie rental place.

To my pleasant surprise, tried a few DVD ISOs, subtitles work fine for all of them!

This looks like a good media player, but I too would like to see the network support so you could use Play On with it.

As someone who already utilizes AnyDVD HD to rip dvds (SD, HD and Blu) and stores them on an external USB drive, this appears to provide a nice way to eliminate the tens of feet of wire and rewiring of the house (my spouse is still reminding me of the damage to the walls and ceilings when I recently rewired). I agree that wireless is on the way; however, it is not here yet. WD gets credit for a first pass at a possible and inexpensive solution for those so inclined. And once downloads take hold, it will address the storage and playback issues most will meet.

I, for one, look forward as a realist. Yes, I bought an A2 and lost, but to me it wasn't a loss - a $99 investment is still going strong and my collection is growing. I don't see a need to double-dip with a device like this. BONUS - once the A2 fails (as all electronics eventually do) I have Plan B. In the world of electronics, there is always something better the day you buy.

:D:D:D

For those of you who don't have a receiver capable of DTS processing, and want to hear the audio on that IronMan.1080p.BluRay.Super.Eat.LOL.Rip.mkv you got off usenet, do what I did. Download the mkv audio converter bundled with popcorn hour. Takes like 5 minutes to convert the audio to ac3 without touching the video.


http://www.digital-digest.com/software/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter.html


Can't play the subtitles in your mkv? Download the .srt from http://www.opensubtitles.org. Theres a subtitle for practically every scene release. Just drop in the same folder as your mkv and your good to go. I suggest seperating each movie into its own subfolder if subtitles are important.

Bought one yesterday at BB for $100. I figure it will make a decent Christmas gift if it doesn't work well enough for me. I also have a MediaGate and 2 TViX boxes that play video from hard drive but they are older models and can't do H264/MKV.

Tested the WDTV with about 30 odd scene-release rips from blu-ray, HDTV, etc in 720p and 1080p. These are MKV files encoded with x264 and DD or DTS for audio.

Media was stored on a sata hard drive in a BlacX drive dock. Connected the WDTV to a DLP TV via HDMI and optical out to my stereo.

I didn't have any trouble with 720p videos and most 1080p movies (75%) played normally, but not all. One 1080p movie had severe blocking (Transformers, 12gb), some had minor blocking artifacts throughout (King Kong, 12gb), others played just fine (Miami Vice, 12gb) so it seems like the problem is not bitrate but some encoding options in x264 are not well supported. All of those play fine on my PC using KMPlayer. Playback on the WDTV was smooth in any case, no hiccups.

It does not play subtitles embedded in MKV files. I used mkvextract to rip the SRT format subs from the file, named them the same as the video file, and then they were displayed.

Media management isn't very good but you can browse by file names, and if you hold down the directional button then the scrolling will accelerate so you can get though long list of files pretty quickly.

As others have said the Fast Forward is limited to 16x max, which really isn't enough for a movie length file if you are trying to get somewhere in the middle or end.

DD and DTS pass through works fine.

It boots up quickly, and the GUI looks pretty nice rendered at 1080p, especially compared to the crappy ones you see on a MediaGate or TviX.

Lack of ethernet is forgivable at this price range, IMO. There is Popcorn Hour if you need more options. This is easy enough to use that I'm pretty sure my Mom could handle it.

Unit is small and light, and the power adapter isn't bad either. Throw it in a backpack and you probably wouldn't notice the weight.

Over at MacWorld there's an article about this device and an active comments section. There's a WD rep (ScottWD) posting and he mentioned he's compiling a list of possible features for future firmware updates. The requests I listed are:

1.) File copy from one USB device to another (at least within List view)
2.) The ability to read/edit metadata and cover-art for videos (at least from filename.txt and filename.jpg)
3.) Embedded subtitle support (at least for .mkv and .vob)
4.) DVD Menu support (at least for Video_TS folder, if not .iso)

ScottWD PMed me back stating he'd logged my requests, but that's it. The file copy and cover/metadata are my major requests. File copy would allow me to keep a 3.5" HD attached full-time and transfer files using a USB stick as I convert/collect them. Cover/metadata would make this device VERY usable as a DVD/HD-Video Jukebox.

For those of you who don't have a receiver capable of DTS processing, and want to hear the audio on that IronMan.1080p.BluRay.Super.Eat.LOL.Rip.mkv you got off usenet, do what I did. Download the mkv audio converter bundled with popcorn hour. Takes like 5 minutes to convert the audio to ac3 without touching the video.


EdiT: no urls allowed for me yet

Can't play the subtitles in your mkv? Download the .srt from EdiT: no urls allowed for me yet. Theres a subtitle for practically every scene release. Just drop in the same folder as your mkv and your good to go. I suggest seperating each movie into its own subfolder if subtitles are important.

thanks for the tips :D... planning to get one of these. Does it play all the files you have tested so far? 1080p mkvs with 5.1 audio?

For those of you who don't have a receiver capable of DTS processing, and want to hear the audio on that IronMan.1080p.BluRay.Super.Eat.LOL.Rip.mkv you got off usenet, do what I did. Download the mkv audio converter bundled with popcorn hour. Takes like 5 minutes to convert the audio to ac3 without touching the video.


http://www.digital-digest.com/software/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter.html


Can't play the subtitles in your mkv? Download the .srt from http://www.opensubtitles.org. Theres a subtitle for practically every scene release. Just drop in the same folder as your mkv and your good to go. I suggest seperating each movie into its own subfolder if subtitles are important.

Thanks for the tip goonoob.

Is there a way to convert the audio track to 2 channel and preserve the DTS track? Will you then be able to choose between the 2 audio tracks? I was looking through the Users Guide PDF and they mentioned you can press Enter multiple times on audio while the movie is playing and it will switch tracks if they are available.

So far the one thing the popcorn hour A-110 advertises is bitstream of HD audio codecs (TrueHD, DTS-MA). I can confirm the WD Media player will not bitstream the codecs as of now. I have not seen any specs anywhere that says what version HDMI that WD went with. Dream world scenario is they went with 1.3 and will enable it some day. Reality is I probably needed to spend another $115 to get with popcorn hour.

I've been searching for the past couple days on an easy solution to network this device. From what I've read on several forums this media player seems to work with a usb hub. I just found Belkin's Network USB hub that lets you share usb devices via Wifi.

belkin.com/

networkusbhub

It seems that to access the device through wifi you have to install software on your pc, but if it acts as a true usb hub, on the back end, would you be able to connect the WD media player to the hub end via usb and have access to the drive which is also plugged in via usb?

Just a thought....

Thanks for the tip goonoob.

Is there a way to convert the audio track to 2 channel and preserve the DTS track? Will you then be able to choose between the 2 audio tracks? I was looking through the Users Guide PDF and they mentioned you can press Enter multiple times on audio while the movie is playing and it will switch tracks if they are available.

Using the converter I linked there is an option to preserve dts track.

Please forgive my ignorance but I need to know the best way to connect my WD TV to a HD that I can access wirelessly on my network from my MBP.

Will any of the following combinations below work

1) Can I connect the WD TV to an Apple Time Capsule through the usb port.

2) Can I connect the WD TV to a Mybook World that is connected to a wireless network

Thanks

Using the converter I linked there is an option to preserve dts track.

I wish there was an easy way to do this on a mac. Anyone have any ideas?
TIA

Hi just got one of the first in UK! very pleased so far,
but iam getting cant play this type of file with .VOBs

these ripped dvd vob play fine on everything else i have any ideas?

Paul

I wish there was an easy way to do this on a mac. Anyone have any ideas?
TIA

Nevermind hopefully this works will report back

Nevermind hopefully this works will report back

http://www.mymediadelivered.com/2008/07/how-to-convert-your-mkv-dts-audio-to-ac3-on-the-mac-for-apple-tv/

the reason I feel this is superior to the Popcorn Hour / NMT's:
1. Cost
2. No need to have a PC/Mac powered on in order to stream
3. No need to have internet by the HDTV (wireless won't cut it, wired is not feasible in home)
4. No messing with networking terminology/hassels (SMB shares vs. FTP vs iLink vs NFS network options one needs to master to get the PCH configured)
5. WD well known, USA based, reputable, and the product is on a pre-order only delay from China.


I agree...kinda; I mean I don't have an a-110, but I am surprised at how much play this little WD box is getting. When I first saw it here, I thought "hmm...doesn't look as if it offers anything new whatsoever...but I can see why WD would market something like this". To me, and I know I've said this before, this is a little one-off from WD in the hopes of selling more...well, let's see; who's the biggest maker of external, USB drives? Is it Seagate? Is it Maxtor? No, it's...WD! :eek:

I haven't followed the thread post by post, but it doesn't seem this unit handles every format users are trying to throw at it, so nothing groundbreaking there. Some keep saying "if only this thing had a network connection, it would be great"! Well, then why didn't you just buy any number of other devices with a network connection? Others that keep hoping for a v2.0 with an ethernet port, I just don't see that happening. And for those who say they like it because they prefer a USB drive to streaming...well, I can't imagine why schlepping a drive around, as opposed to central storage of all your files, to share at every device around the house, would be better, but I suppose you have your reasons.

No, the only thing I see going for this device is it's small, for what that's worth (?), and it's cheap. And I guess the USB thing works for those who can't, just absolutely can't pull hard wire, and are looking to stream files that don't work well (yet) over wireless. But I would say this thing has a shelf-life of about, uh...

Just my .02,

CD

the reason I feel this is superior to the Popcorn Hour / NMT's:
1. Cost
2. No need to have a PC/Mac powered on in order to stream
3. No need to have internet by the HDTV (wireless won't cut it, wired is not feasible in home)
4. No messing with networking terminology/hassels (SMB shares vs. FTP vs iLink vs NFS network options one needs to master to get the PCH configured)
5. WD well known, USA based, reputable, and the product is on a pre-order only delay from China.

Well, I'm not trying to make enemies, but I guess I should have also noted that I see a lot of you are new to posting, and maybe new to streaming? And one of the other points I might have made is I guess this isn't a bad way for the uninitiated to get into streaming...cheaply.

And that's fine, if it is, everyone has to start somewhere. IMO, I think that you'll find going digital means you'll just yearn more for the convenience of having everything available at your remote-controllable fingertips, not just what one drive here or there will satiate; and when you get bitten by that bug, this thing will collect dust.

CD

Opened copy protected dvr-ms file, didn't suspect it was copy protected. Started to play, freezed. Returned to menu, tried other video files. Not recognizable file type. Apparently, player went off the hooks.
Powered down with remote, turned it on, same nightmare.
Unplugged, plugged back, that helped.

I agree to an extent but we have to look at peoples budgets also. I used an Xbox 360 to stream 720p over wireless, but converting MKV to WMV took hrs, fighting with the right programs, codecs, some downmixing audio etc. I was gonna build a media pc sure has it's perks, but I can view the internet on my Wii, play video games on the Wii/Xbox 360, but had no easy way to play or stream movies that I know off.

Tried Encode 360, slow, transcode 360, Tversity and many others with mixed results. Maybe I just didn't know what I was doing properly or didnt find the right software.

To build a decent media PC that I would be happy with $600-700easy WD Media player $100. Is it ideal no but it's not bad. Especially since I have no realy use for the playing games or surfing the web, on my projector.

I agree to an extent but we have to look at peoples budgets also. I used an Xbox 360 to stream 720p over wireless, but converting MKV to WMV took hrs, fighting with the right programs, codecs, some downmixing audio etc. I was gonna build a media pc sure has it's perks, but I can view the internet on my Wii, play video games on the Wii/Xbox 360, but had no easy way to play or stream movies that I know off.

Tried Encode 360, slow, transcode 360, Tversity and many others with mixed results. Maybe I just didn't know what I was doing properly or didnt find the right software.

To build a decent media PC that I would be happy with $600-700easy WD Media player $100. Is it ideal no but it's not bad. Especially since I have no realy use for the playing games or surfing the web, on my projector.

I should revise my position: I really don't mean to say it has no market and is a waste; let's just say a niche market, and probably a small window before people will likely move on to something that does more.

We'll call it a gateway DMP :D

CD

Further to my problem .VOB files not recognized, also just made a ISO ripped dvd also not playable file type.

i note people are saying that these play without issue yet some reports say that these 2 file types are not included!

can somebody please give a definite answer on this it getting to me!

Paul

Are others having the format issues with having to magnify x2 then back to normal for it to be properly formatted on the screen. I am going back and forth with someone at Western Digital and wondered if others have this issue.

I noticed it mentioned in the review with the pictures of the unit cracked open.

This new WD device appears to do EXACTLY what I'd like it to do.
I'd better buy one before its market window disappears.

I should revise my position: I really don't mean to say it has no market and is a waste; let's just say a niche market, and probably a small window before people will likely move on to something that does more.

We'll call it a gateway DMP :D

CD

sounds like blu-ray physical media...

This new WD device appears to do EXACTLY what I'd like it to do.
I'd better buy one before its market window disappears.

Why don't you like to just stream over a network RJ? Why is a 2-box solution better than 1?

CD

Why don't you like to just stream over a network RJ? Why is a 2-box solution better than 1?
No network. No box #1 (computer).

Why don't you like to just stream over a network RJ? Why is a 2-box solution better than 1?

CD

streaming over wireless N or over Ethernet is still a 2 box solution, maybe more?

Are others having the format issues with having to magnify x2 then back to normal for it to be properly formatted on the screen. I am going back and forth with someone at Western Digital and wondered if others have this issue.



See this review, the person who wrote it is experiencing the same issue/bug if you look down at his cons/negs

http://maddhat.com/?p=31

'A few miscellaneous issues:
Sometimes the video won’t completely fill the screen at first. It’s easily fixed by zooming in, then back out. But for some reason, the decoder just doesn’t scale the video properly. This doesn’t happen always. It seems to happen completely randomly. Once I zoomed in and out to fix it, it would play properly for the rest of the file. This issue is pretty annoying, and hopefully it can be fixed.'

No network. No box #1 (computer).

No computer? Am I missing something; how do you rip? Oh, you just download. Wow.

CD

EDIT - No wait, no computer...how do you download??

No computer? Am I missing something; how do you rip? Oh, you just download. Wow. No wait, no computer...how do you download??
As Philip Henslowe says, "...It's a mystery."

If you must know, I'm recording ATSC HD on a computer at another location.
Transporting a USB flash drive or hard drive is a nice solution for ME.

streaming over wireless N or over Ethernet is still a 2 box solution, maybe more?

Well, 2 boxes you can see. I really am being, admittedly, egocentric here, in that I am just assuming that having a central file server...hiding where the magic happens...and then a single-box front-end to stream to is the way everyone would like to go if they could.

Now I have already said I understand you need a plan B if you can't go that route, but some have said "no no...I prefer to have a USB External drive local"...as opposed to, like someone else mentioned, a Popcorn Hour (and I'm not trying to push it...I don't have one myself) which has an internal hdd, a usb slot, and networkability.

So it seems to me this WD unit is what I had been calling it, a workaround for those who can't do otherwise, but I was just wondering why some people seemed to prefer it; which indicates to me, even if they could stream from a network they would want to go this way (of course I have to admit I am still confused about how anyone in this forum can not have a computer)?

CD

See this review, the person who wrote it is experiencing the same issue/bug if you look down at his cons/negs

http://maddhat.com/?p=31

'A few miscellaneous issues:
Sometimes the video won’t completely fill the screen at first. It’s easily fixed by zooming in, then back out. But for some reason, the decoder just doesn’t scale the video properly. This doesn’t happen always. It seems to happen completely randomly. Once I zoomed in and out to fix it, it would play properly for the rest of the file. This issue is pretty annoying, and hopefully it can be fixed.'


I did notice that just no one else mentioned it besides me and in that review. Wasn't sure if it was a mass issue or just my unit, in which case a return is needed. It is very annoying to hit option, magnify, then -magnify, back to get it to fit correctly.

No way of adding cover art also stinks or one that I could figure out

Well.... I have been lurking on AVS since 2007, when I needed to research an HDTV purchase. Once I got the TV, searching for ways to get High Def content onto it was next. I have HD cable / DVR for starters, almost made the leap into HDDVD but did not, and was super close to buying the A-110 when it came out becuase it finally had USB slave. My plan with the A-110 was to use it just like a an External USB hard drive that had HDMI out, but would much rather opt for a solution that is super easy, plug n play, works right out of the box. So for less of a headache and half the cost, the WD seems better than a networked streamer. Plus, I rent, so running ethernet drops to my AV set up is not happening, and powerline adapters would be yet another big expense.

Well, 2 boxes you can see. I really am being, admittedly, egocentric here, in that I am just assuming that having a central file server...hiding where the magic happens...and then a single-box front-end to stream to is the way everyone would like to go if they could.

Now I have already said I understand you need a plan B if you can't go that route, but some have said "no no...I prefer to have a USB External drive local"...as opposed to, like someone else mentioned, a Popcorn Hour (and I'm not trying to push it...I don't have one myself) which has an internal hdd, a usb slot, and networkability.

So it seems to me this WD unit is what I had been calling it, a workaround for those who can't do otherwise, but I was just wondering why some people seemed to prefer it; which indicates to me, even if they could stream from a network they would want to go this way (of course I have to admit I am still confused about how anyone in this forum can not have a computer)?

CD

I picked one of these up last night from Best Buy. They sold out pretty quickly in my area. Popular little box.

BTW I do have an HTPC, HDhomerun, Hauppauge Tuner card, Sat tuner, NAS device, XBOX 360..... yada yada yada. most of this is hooked up to a projector.

Nothing like having this simple little box to hookup in my kids room or my living room when I don't feel like messing with all the other gear.


Great little box so far.

Is it possible to connect the WD TV HD Media Player to the apple time capsule ?

Further to my problem .VOB files not recognized, also just made a ISO ripped dvd also not playable file type.

i note people are saying that these play without issue yet some reports say that these 2 file types are not included!

can somebody please give a definite answer on this it getting to me!

Paul

Update i have managed to get .vob files to play ! by renaming them .mpg

So the next thing is how do you get the files to play continuously ( one following the next)

Paul

Are others having the format issues with having to magnify x2 then back to normal for it to be properly formatted on the screen. I am going back and forth with someone at Western Digital and wondered if others have this issue.

I noticed it mentioned in the review with the pictures of the unit cracked open.

Yep, like I said in the review, that's happening to me. Also, it now seems to happen on every file I play.. maybe it was always happening before and I just didn't notice it sometimes.

Update i have managed to get .vob files to play ! by renaming them .mpg

So the next thing is how do you get the files to play continuously ( one following the next)

Paul

I'm curious Paul; with PS3, if you just rename a .vob to .mpg, you can stream the file, but you get no chapter, scan, etc. What I have found is you have to remux using like vob2mpg, and it doesn't like 1 big .vob...you have to rip to smaller .vob's and remux all those into 1 big .mpg.

When you just renamed your .vob, can you chapter skip and scan with the WD?

CD

I should revise my position: I really don't mean to say it has no market and is a waste; let's just say a niche market, and probably a small window before people will likely move on to something that does more.

We'll call it a gateway DMP :D

CD

I think you misjudge the market. A majority of people have a PC (for www & email), a TV (connected to cable and a DVD player). They don't have wireless, they don't even have a network. They don't know AVSForum exists.

You might be right about the window before something better and cheaper arrives. But that is normal.

hi
i need to know please if it support hebrew subtitles in the right direction.

thank you

could someone tell me if an IPod works with this? 5.5gen to be specific

For those of you who don't have a receiver capable of DTS processing, and want to hear the audio on that IronMan.1080p.BluRay.Super.Eat.LOL.Rip.mkv you got off usenet, do what I did. Download the mkv audio converter bundled with popcorn hour. Takes like 5 minutes to convert the audio to ac3 without touching the video.


http://www.digital-digest.com/software/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter.html


Can't play the subtitles in your mkv? Download the .srt from http://www.opensubtitles.org. Theres a subtitle for practically every scene release. Just drop in the same folder as your mkv and your good to go. I suggest seperating each movie into its own subfolder if subtitles are important.

Maybe it's a false alarm but my McAfee AV s/w is detecting a trojan in the AudioConverter s/w.

I think you misjudge the market. A majority of people have a PC (for www & email), a TV (connected to cable and a DVD player). They don't have wireless, they don't even have a network. They don't know AVSForum exists.

You might be right about the window before something better and cheaper arrives. But that is normal.

Well I agree with you here...that I am always the first to say AVS is its own little world and the gen-pop is not nearly as in tune to (or care to be) BD/HDDvd, Sirius/XM, PS3/XBox...AFLAC from FLAC...or, in this case streaming from network vs. locally from one of these USB drives...as we are. And, again, I think this further supports my argument that this is exactly what WD had in mind when they introduced this little guy; I can see the BB displays now: "networking sch-networking...no need to tear your house up pulling computer wires...or having to deal with fancy-schmancy wireless wizardry; first you buy this (a WD My Passport/Book/...My DVR Expander, my personal favorite) and you just plug it into that. Boom, no more CDs, DVDs...PCP...", oops...lol.

But using this logic, how do you propose these technological slackjaws are supposed to rip? And won't they dismiss this WD gadget as just one more piece of hardware they don't grasp?

CD

hi
i need to know please if it support hebrew subtitles in the right direction.

thank you

Wow, talk about that niche market :D

CD

Reviewer writes:
---------------------
"I hooked up an external drive to this unit with a Ethernet port. Dragged and dropped divx files from my pc to my drive and it automatically saw the videos without having to power cycle...
---------------------
Can anyone figure out what drive this guy has?
Is it some NAS with USB port? AFAIK, this port on NAS is usually for USB printer. In our case, we need concurrent (or may be switched) access to NAS as a client via USB port. He claims "without having to power cycle..."

But using this logic, how do you propose these technological slackjaws are supposed to rip? And won't they dismiss this WD gadget as just one more piece of hardware they don't grasp?
CD

That's a good point. But have you seen the statistics on how many people do torrents?

I suspect many of them don't do wireless or networking.

Any idea on how to create a video playlist for this device? I've been unable to create one successfully with Mplayer and other media players. It simply doesn't show up in the browser, even though it's on the drive.

Anyone have any success creating video playlists for this thing?

That's a good point. But have you seen the statistics on how many people do torrents?

I suspect many of them don't do wireless or networking.

Well, no harm certainly. This will be my last post on the subject, since I don't own one; my OP was simply that I was surprised this seemed to be so instantly popular (which likely supports your position GT...someone's buying 'em), as it didn't offer anything new.

Enjoy,

CD

I think someone else metioned this already, but XBOX360 encoded WMV do not play. Anyway to play them?

Also, all my MKV files play vid fine, but no sound at all via HDMI. Plays fine with VLC on PC. Anyone else has this problem and know how to fix it?

TIA!

The WD box will not process audio at all. You need to go to system settings and set audio to digital. This will then pass the bitstream of either DD or DTS from your MKV files to your receiver.

Thanks for the reply. Then I have to use an optical cable? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of HDMI?

Thanks for the reply. Then I have to use an optical cable? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of HDMI?

if your receiver can decode audio on the hdmi then you good, hdmi will work. if you receiver cant then you have to use optical.

if you file has dd or dts only then you have to use receiver capable of doing dts or dd, if your file has stereo then you can hook it up to something that doesnt.

alot depends on your setup.

Reviewer writes:
---------------------
"I hooked up an external drive to this unit with a Ethernet port. Dragged and dropped divx files from my pc to my drive and it automatically saw the videos without having to power cycle...
---------------------
Can anyone figure out what drive this guy has?
Is it some NAS with USB port? AFAIK, this port on NAS is usually for USB printer. In our case, we need concurrent (or may be switched) access to NAS as a client via USB port. He claims "without having to power cycle..."

Would love to know. This was my idea from the start. I think the Ximeta based NDAS boxes should work, but for the network side to be active the WD TV either has to have power unplugged (not just in standby mode) or the USB connection unplugged.

Would love to know. This was my idea from the start. I think the Ximeta based NDAS boxes should work, but for the network side to be active the WD TV either has to have power unplugged (not just in standby mode) or the USB connection unplugged.

I'm pulling the trigger the moment someone figures out how to get it to work over the network for under 100 dollars.